i8o FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



XIV. 



Next, turning to the subject of Fibres, West Africa 

 presents, even from our very limited Icnowledge of its 

 economic botany, a rich field for development. 



Take the Baobab tree (Adansonia digitatd), or 

 Monkey-bread, so plentiful along Western Tropical 

 Africa. The banks of the River Gambia are studded 

 with it : its weird-like headless form is to be seen there 

 by thousands. The natives use its bark as fibre, its 

 pounded fresh green leaves as lalo, and its fruit they 

 eat, while the seeds thereof are used medicinally. 



In the Kew Report, 1876, the Director of the 

 Royal Gardens records that " paper manufacturers 

 speak with one consent of the magnificent qualities of 

 the bark of this tree. The only drawback to its use 

 is the apparent impossibility of introducing it into 

 the English market in sufficiently large quantities to 

 make it commercially important. Notwithstanding 

 what is stated of the slowness of its growth, I am 

 still of opinion that more might be done in pro- 

 moting its cultivation in India and other tropical 

 countries." 



Its cultivation need not for some years have to be 



